How to begin...

If nothing else illustrates more a certain portion of the leftwing's looniness than this article by Nina Burleigh, I don't know what does.

NRO directed me to this and reminded me who Nina was:

"Last time we paid attention, she had announced that she "would be happy to give [Bill Clinton] a blowjob just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs."

So you will have to forgive me if I take any moral stance she advocates with a grain of salt.

The article is about her and her family's move to upstate New York to Narrowsburg. She is apprehensive to say the least:

"After growing accustomed to the French social system -- with its cheap medicine, generous welfare, short workweek and plentiful child care -- life back in depressed upstate New York felt especially harsh."

*snort* Is there really any need to comment here?

They decided to enroll their Kindergartener in the local school:

"Still, for the first few months, we felt uneasy. Eighty of Narrowsburg's 319 adults are military veterans and at least 10 recent school graduates are serving in Iraq or on other bases overseas right now. The school's defining philosophy was traditional and conservative, starting with a sit-down-in-your-seat brand of discipline, leavened with a rafter-shaking reverence for country and flag. Every day the students gathered in the gym for the "Morning Program," open to parents, which began with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a patriotic song, and then discussion of a "word of the week."

The HORRORS!! But it gets even worse, if you can imagine!

"But it wasn't until our boy came home with an invitation in his backpack to attend a "released time" Bible class that my husband and I panicked. We called the ACLU and learned this was an entirely legal way for evangelicals to proselytize to children during school hours. What was against the law was sending the flier home in a kid's backpack, implying school support. After our inquiry, the ACLU formally called the principal to complain. She apologized and promised never to allow it again."

They panicked. That's right. With an invitation to a Bible class. Because heaven forbid you should be invited to expose your kid to compassion, love, and forgiveness. That would be just wrong. But the story grows even more horrific.

"When we later learned that the cheery kindergarten teacher belonged to one of the most conservative evangelical churches in the community, we were careful not to challenge anyone or to express any opinion about politics or religion, out of fear our son would be singled out. Instead, to counteract any God-and-country indoctrination he received in school, we began our own informal in-home instruction about Bush, Iraq and Washington over the evening news."

Because the news is the most unbiased source of course. And every kindergartener needs to be informed about world events, don't you know? You notice that she never says the teacher ever related her faith in class. Just the thought of an "evangelical" was enough for Nina to yank him out of school. (I suppose if an evangelical yanks his kid out of school because the teacher is.. say, an atheist or a homosexual, that would be wrong in Nina's view?)

Later she explains Iraq to him:

I wanted him to understand how privileged he was to live in a place where bombs weren't raining from the sky. It was a talk I'd tried to have before, but not one he'd ever paid much attention to until that day, trapped in the back seat of our car.
In simple language, I told my son that our president had started a war with a country called Iraq. I said that we were bombing cities and destroying buildings. And I explained that families just like ours now had no money or food because their parents didn't have offices to go to anymore or bosses to pay them. "America did this?" my son asked, incredulous. "Yes, America," I answered. He paused, a long silent pause, then burst out: "But Mommy, I love America! I want to hug America!"

Perhaps explaining that one of the reasons we have no bombs raining from the sky here is because of the war in Iraq and that people there can now live in a Democracy instead of a brutal dictatorship, might put at least another perspective in this poor little boy's head who is so confused with his love for America.

It is a scary thing for a young mind to be taught any love for God and country. Much better to listen to the wise words of his mother who offered the President of the United States a blow job for keeping abortion legal.

Now safely back in Manhatten's upper west side, the Pledge of Alliance is not said at his school. Good thing since Nina states she had to force herself not to sit down in protest when it was said at the old school. She says she has never even seen a flag at the new school. It seems her child has gotten over his patriotism. She breathes a sigh of relief that her child's "childish national pride is shed."

As long as I live I will never understand a woman like Nina Burleigh. I will never understand anything about her. Not her love for abortion rights, not her disgust at our flag and Pledge of Allegiance, not her fear of religious faith, not her yearning for the lifestyle of France. But this is why I am Republican. This woman is who I never ever want to be.